There are known in the art food preparation units, such as those used in commercial kitchens, that are designed to facilitate the battering and breading of food items, such as chicken, fish or other foods. One such prior art piece of equipment is known as a bread and batter table, an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 1 and indicated generally at 10. Bread and batter table 10 includes a cabinet 11 that contains several components of the bread and batter table 10. For example, bread and batter table 10 includes within the cabinet 11 a batter dip pan 12 in which is removably disposed a batter basket 14. Batter to be applied to the food items may be poured into the batter dip pan 12. The batter basket 14 is mounted to a spring assembly that lifts the batter basket 14 above the level of the batter in the batter dip pan 12 when the spring assembly is in its quiescent state.
The bread and batter table 10 additionally includes a breading pan 16, Breading material is placed into the breading pan 16. Breading pan 16 includes a removable plug (not visible in FIG. 1) in the bottom thereof. Situated below breading pan 16 is a sifting drawer 18 that slides from a first position where it is disposed under the breading pan 16, to a second position where it is disposed external to the cabinet 11 and may be removed therefrom. Situated still further below the sifting drawer 18 is a sifted breading lug 20. Sifted breading lug 20 also slides from a first position where it is disposed under the sifting drawer 18, to a second position where it is disposed external to the cabinet 11 and may be removed therefrom. A guard 22 is in some devices positioned above the batter dip pan 12 to prevent foreign objects from falling into the batter contained therein.
In operation, batter is placed into the batter dip pan 12 and breading material is placed into the breading pan 16. Typically, approximately three gallons of batter are placed into the batter dip pan 12. One or more food items that are to be battered and breaded are placed into the batter basket 14 and the batter basket 14 is pushed downward against the spring force of the spring assembly until the food items are immersed into the batter. Release of the downward pressure on the batter basket 14 causes the springs of the spring assembly to raise the batter basket 14 back to the raised position such that the food items are raised out of the batter. The batter basket 14 is hinged so that the operator can swing the batter basket 14 forward to dump the food items from the batter basket 14 into the breading pan 16. The food items and/or the breading are manipulated by the operator until the breading substantially coats the food items (the breading will stick to the food items because of the batter that already coats them). Once breaded, the food items may be removed from the breading pan 16 and placed into another container (not shown) awaiting cooking. The container for receiving the battered and breaded food items is typically held on the shelf 21, which folds and may be placed in either a horizontal orientation (shown) or a vertical orientation for storage. This folding shelf is not very sturdy, and incidents of the shelf breaking and becoming unusable are not uncommon.
It will be appreciated that the act of breading the food items is imprecise, and some of the batter will detach from the food items and remain in the breading pan 16 after the food items have been removed. When enough detached batter has built up in the breading, or when it is desired to change the breading formulation in the breading pan 16 to prepare a different type of food item, the plug in the bottom of breading pan 16 is removed and the breading in breading pan 16 is pushed through the resulting hole, where it will fall into the sifting drawer 18. Breading that is not clinging to detached batter will easily pass through the sifting drawer 18 and fall into the sifted breading lug 20, while the larger pieces of combined batter and breading will be trapped in the sifting drawer 18 (and may thereafter be disposed of). The cleaned breading in the sifted breading lug 20 may then be placed back into the breading pan 16 (after the plug has been replaced) if the same breading formulation is to be used to bread further food items, or it may be stored for later use.
It will be appreciated then that there remains a need in the art for improvements in existing systems and methods for battering and breading food items. The presently disclosed embodiments are directed to satisfying this need.